STACK 

ANN  is* 


019 

Job 


.5JAE-UNIVERS 


NIVEM//J 


-s^lOS  ANGELA 

dc     •****-        .  *£• 


1 

F3 


-  § 

T>  >• 


THE  JEW 

AS 

RADICAL,  LIBERAL 

AND 

CONSERVATIVE 


BY 

LOUIS  I.  NEWMAN 

(Rabbi  of  Bronx  Free  Synagogue) 


NEW    YORK 
1921 


Stack 
Annex 

5019059 

THE  JEW  AS  RADICAL,  LIB- 
ERAL AND  CONSERVATIVE. 

By  Louis  I.  NEWMAN. 

"All  Jews  are  radicals ;  all  radicals 
are  Jews."  This  is  the  burden  of  the 
new  anti-Semitism  in  the  Western 
World.  Upon  these  premises  the 
enemies  of  Jewry  have  built  several 
damaging  syllogisms  with  scrupulous 
regard  for  logic  when  it  serves  their 
purpose,  and  an  equally  scrupulous 
disregard  for  truth.  A  corollary  of 
the  charge  is  that  radicalism,  the  al- 
leged weapon  of  the  poor  Jew,  is  an 
ally  of  conservatism,  the  weapon  of 
the  "capitalist"  Jew,  in  their  joint  ef- 
fort to  establish  Jewish  hegemony 
over  the  Gentile  nations. 

Lt  is  easy  to  assert  that  these  and 
similar  accusations  are  a  legacy  of 
war  hysteria ;  that  the  world  is  pass- 
ing through  a  period  of  emotional 
instability  wherein  the  vaporings  of 
diseased  minds,  ignored  in  times  of 
tranquillity,  have  become  the  text- 
book of  racial  prejudice.  It  is  easy 
to  assert  that  men  have  suffered 
themselves  to  surrender  to  the  habit 
of  hate,  incurred  as  a  measure  of 
success  in  war,  but  now  enthroned 
with  increased  potency  in  days  of 
peace;  with  victory  over  former 
enemies  a  new  object  of  vilification 
must  be  found ;  hence  the  Jew,  as  the 


weakest  national  group,  is  selected  as 
the  target  for  mankind's  passions  and 
hostility.  Yet  neither  analysis  of  the 
world's  present  neurosis  serves  to 
crush  the  accusations  of  Jewish 
radicalism.  A  statement  of  the  true 
situation  alone  can  suffice. 

For  it  is  palpably  false  to  affirm 
even  that  most  Jews  are  radicals  and 
most  radicals  Jews.  We  are  a  many- 
sided  people,  complex,  variegated, 
with  a  kaleidoscopic  diversity  of 
opinion ;  we  are  a  group,  not  of  one, 
but  of  many  minds.  It  has  been 
rightly  said  that  where  there  are  ten 
Jews  there  are  at  least  eleven  views. 
The  anti-Semite  errs  fatally  and  com- 
pletely if  he  generalizes  from  one  or 
even  fifty  Jewish  radicals  to  snap 
judgments  concerning  the  entire  Jew- 
ish people.  Jews  throughout  history 
have  allied  themselves  with  world 
movements,  each  according  to  the 
dictates  of  his  individual  conscience ; 
Jews  have  been  Whig,  Tory,  progres- 
sive, moderate,  independent,  liberal, 
reactionary  and  Mugwump,  each  in 
line  with  the  prompting  of  his  social 
and  intellectual  environment  and  his 
own  voluntary  choice. 

Thus  it  follows  that  in  the  United 
States  and  other  lands  Jews  have 
been  and  are  members  of  all  political 
and  economic  groups.  The  Repub- 
lican. Democratic,  Prohibitionist,  So- 


cialist,  Farmer-Labor,  Socialist-La- 
bor count  among  their  supporters 
Jews  of  the  most  varied  economic 
station  and  political  philosophy ;  were 
other  parties  existent  in  this  country 
Jews  would  be  found  among  them. 
It  is  needless  to  cite  names  of  promi- 
nent Jews  in  the  major  political 
units ;  not  only  Jewish  "capitalists," 
but  hosts  of  the  Jewish  middle 
classes  and  "proletariat"  voted  dur- 
ing the  recent  election  in  the  ranks 
of  Democrats  or  Republicans.  As 
further  illustration  of  the  diversity 
of  Jewish  opinion,  it  is  safe  to  say 
that  many  Jews  "split  their  ballot" 
in  accordance  with  their  desire  to 
place  in  office  the  best  men,  regard- 
less of  party  and  creed. 

The  belief  that  the  bulk  of  Jews 
throughout  America  are  members  of 
the  Socialist  Party  is  mere  Fordesque 
fantasy.  It  is  important  to  observe 
that  neither  Eugene  V.  Debs,  Presi- 
dential candidate,  nor  Seymour  Sted- 
man,  Vice-Presidential  candidate,  on 
the  Socialist  ticket,  have  Jewish 
blood  in  their  veins.  Moreover,  the 
extremist  wing  at  the  Socialist  con- 
vention, was  led  by  delegates  from 
Chicago  Stockyard  districts ;  the  New 
York  delegates  constituted  the  con- 
servative wing.  The  rad-'cal  Non- 
Partisan  League  in  the  Northwest 
was  conceived  and  is  led  by  typical 


American    farmers    of    long-estab- 
lished American  lineage. 

When  some  Jews  vote  the  Socialist 
ticket  it  is  for  reasons  ndt  entirely  re- 
prehensible. A  radical-proof  New 
York  periodical  recently  described 
the  psychological  impulses  which  de- 
termine the  party  affiliations  of  new 
voters  of  immigrant  stock.  These 
have  come  from  Europe,  hoping  to 
find  improved  working  conditions; 
they  are  forced  into  the  grind  of  the 
sweat  shop  and  contract  labor ;  they 
have  come  to  America,  seeking 
blessed  relief  from  Eastern  European 
Ghettos;  they  are  plunged  into  the 
unseemly  tenement  house  life  of  our 
congested  metropolitan  centers.  In 
bitter  disappointment  and  with  de- 
spair in  their  hearts  they  turn  to 
those  political  parties  which  promise 
speedy  release  from  their  heavy 
economic  burdens.  It  is  because  a 
large  number  of  Jews  are  members 
of  the  working  classes  that  they  have 
proletarian  sympathies.  When  their 
economic  interests  change,  their  po- 
litical ties  follow  suit.  It  is  axiomatic 
that  each  country  has  the  Jews  it 
deserves:  Free  America  has  loyal, 
contented  Jewish  citizens.  It  is  only 
when  American  liberty  for  all  her 
citizens  is  abridged,  whether  through 
the  stress  of  war  or  the  reign  of  re- 
action, that  some  Jews  become  con- 


spicuous  through  their  participation 
in  heterodox  movements. 

Herein  lies  the  key  to  reputed  Jew- 
ish activities  in  the  radical  movements 
of  European  countries.  Where  tryan- 
ny  is  there  we  find  the  Jewish  protes- 
tant;  where  czarism  and  kaiserism 
flourish  there  the  Jew  assumes  his 
historic  role  as  protagonist  of  the 
oppressed  masses.  Anti-Semites  in 
'America  and  abroad  are  seeking  to 
prove  that  the  downfall  of  Germany, 
Austria  and  Hungary  must  be  laid 
at  the  door  of  Jewish  agitators,  upon 
whose  Jewish  kinsmen  the  militar- 
ists, it  is  said,  are  justified  in  wreak- 
ing thrice-fold  vengeance.  How 
much  knavery  and  hypocrisy  lie  in 
this  twisted  attitude  1  It  was  but  two 
years  ago  that  the  entire  allied  world 
congratulated  the  Jewish  anti- 
kaiserites  of  Prussia  for  their  daring 
stand  against  the  military  and  auto- 
cratic caste.  A  Christian  clergyman 
who  has  recently  taken  up  the  cudg- 
els in  support  of  the  "Protocols" 
proclaimed  far  and  wide  that  what- 
ever was  good  in  Germany  arose 
through  the  cultural  contributions  of 
German  Jews :  Heine,  the  satirical 
foe  of  Prussianism,  was  quoted  in 
magazine,  newspaper  and  book  for 
his  witty  expose  of  Teutonic  stupidi- 
ty; Maximilian  Harden  was  dubbed 
by  allied  journalists  "the  only  honest 


man  in  Germany" ;  the  Arbeiter  Zeit- 
ung  Ring  and  the  Poalei  Zion  of 
Austria  were  hailed  in  the  journals 
of  Europe  as  the  only  courageous 
and  outspoken  liberals  in  the  land  of 
the  Hapsburgs.  Yet  today,  despite 
the  fact  that  Jews  assisted  German 
freemen  to  overthrow  the  yoke  of 
Ludendorf,  Hindenburg  and  Will- 
iam, despite  the  fact  that  Jewish  par- 
ticipation in  Central  European  up- 
heavals shortened  the  world  war  by 
months  if  not  years,  the  anti-Semite 
labors  to  fasten  the  stigma  of  "radi- 
cal" upon  all  Jews.  It  was  a  peril- 
ous task  for  the  Jewish  liberal  to 
beard  the  Prussian  lion  in  his  very 
den,  yet  he  risked  life  and  property 
for  the  safety  of  democracy;  today, 
when  the  world  is  freed  from  the 
Teutonic  menace,  it  remembers  not 
that  the  Jew  was  a  martyr,  but  that 
he  was  a  "radical."  Posterity  may 
vindicate  German  Jewish  freemen  as 
"foremost  soldiers  on  the  battlefields 
of  human  liberation,"  but  mankind, 
rescued  from  enslavement,  is  today 
singularly  ungrateful. 

The  same  unhistorical  method  is 
applied  to  Jewish  participation  in 
Russian  anti-Czarist  movements.  A 
short  seven  years  ago  the  democratic 
peoples  applauded  the  efforts  of  Rus- 
sian intellectuals,  assisted  by  many 
Russian  Jews,  to  substitute  repub- 


lican  government  for  an  intolerably 
corrupt  bureaucracy.  Is  it  to  be  won- 
dered that  Russian  Jews  in  great 
measure  sympathized  with  the  liberal 
elements  in  struggling  Russia?  Not 
only  did  the  Jew  feel  the  heavy  hand 
of  autocrats,  who  exacted  from  him 
and  his  suffering  compatriots  the  last 
drop  of  blood  in  expiation  for  pro- 
gressive thought,  but  the  Jew  saw  as 
well  millions  of  peasantry  and  prole- 
tariat deliberately  kept  in  sodden  ig- 
norance and  ground  underfoot  in 
economic  servitude.  It  was  not  self- 
interest,  but  his  hereditary  sympathy 
for  the  "under  dog"  that  prompted 
the  Jew  to  galvanize  by  sheer  intel- 
lectual energy  the  sluggish  masses  of 
Russia  into  republican  activity. 
When  the  Russian  revolution  ceased 
to  be  a  purely  Jewish  concern  then 
was  it  crowned  with  success. 

Can  the  Jew  be  blamed  for  his  sus- 
picion of  those  who  would  restore 
the  "ancien  regime"  in  any  land?  A 
spokesman  of  the  ill-fated  Kolchak, 
during  the  days  his  chief's  fortunes 
were  at  high  tide,  issued  this  warning 
in  New  York :  "Woe  to  the  Jews  if  a 
stable  government  is  ever  established 
in  Russia."  Petlura,  Judenich,  Dem- 
kin,  Gregorieff,  Wrangel  and  now 
Balakovich — all  leaders  of  dispos- 
sessed emigres  and  their  armies  of 
mercenaries — have  been  not  only 


monarchists,  but  pronounced  anti- 
Semites;  every  anti-Soviet  general 
has  either  encouraged  or  tolerated 
pogroms  against  innocent  Jewish 
communities.  Can  the  bleeding  mul- 
titudes of  war-harassed  Lithuania, 
Poland  and  the  Ukraine  be  con- 
demned if  their  anti-Soviet  policy  is 
not  sufficiently  firm  to  satisfy  West- 
ern Europe?  If  the  Jews  of  these 
lands  cast  in  their  lot  with  the  So- 
viets they  are  punished  by  the  latter's 
foes;  if  they  are  affiliated  with  the 
anti-Soviet  parties  the  Bolshevists 
persecute  them ;  if  Jewish  communi- 
ties remain  neutral  they  are  assailed 
by  the  militarist  elements  of  both 
camps.  The  arm-chair  anti-Bolshe- 
vist can  little  appreciate  the  true 
status  of  the  Jew  in  stricken  Eastern 
Europe. 

It  is  a  grotesque  invention  to  affirm 
that  Jews  alone  have  been  the  guilty 
leaders  of  Russian  radicalism.  The 
well-to-do  Jews  have  been  persecuted 
in  the  same  fashion  as  other  Russian 
bourgeoisie;  the  various  editions  of 
the  "Protocols"  are  replete  with  bad- 
ly concealed  evidence  to  the  effect 
that  not  Jews  alone,  but  all  racial 
groups,  are  represented  in  the  Bol- 
shevist administration.  H.  G.  Wells, 
whose  various  references  to  Jews  and 
Judaism  throughout  his  novels  and 
essays  would  scarcely  win  for  him 


the  title  of  philo-Semite,  remarks  in 
a  recent  brochure : 

"It  is  these  young  men  who  consti- 
tute the  living  force  of  Bolshevism. 
Many  of  them  are  Jews,  because 
most  of  the  Russian  emigrants  into 
America  were  Jews,  but  few  of  them 
have  any  strong  racial  Jewish  feel- 
ing. They  are  not  out  for  Jewry, 
but  for  a  new  world.  So  far  from 
being  in  a  continuation  of  Jewish 
tradition  the  Bolsheviki  have  put 
most  of  the  Zionist  leaders  in  Russia 
in  prison  and  they  have  proscribed 
the  teaching  of  Hebrew  as  a  reaction- 
ary language.  Several  of  the  most 
interesting  Bolsheviki  I  met  were  not 
Jews  at  all,  but  blond  Nordic  men. 
Lenin,  beloved  leader  of  all  that  is 
energetic  in  Russia  today,  has  the 
Tartar  type  of  face  and  is  certainly 
no  Jew." 

If  Jews  have  played  an  important 
role  in  the  rise  and  the  career  of  the 
Soviet  Government — and  what  has 
the  Jew  to  gain  by  a  denial  of  this 
fact? — they  have  been  prompted  by 
motives,  not  on  behalf  of  Jewish  su- 
premacy, but  purely  and  entirely  be- 
cause of  their  self-styled  "humani- 
tarian" aims.  We  may  disagree 
fundamentally  with  the  tenets  of 
Russian  radicalism,  yet  we  must  dis- 
miss as  chimerical  any  assertion  that 
"the  Bolshevist-led  strike  is  a  Jewish 


financial  weapon  to  wreck  Gentile 
business,  in  order  that  it  may  easily 
fall  into  Jewish  hands."  In  our  esti- 
mate of  Jewish  membership  in  Rus- 
sian liberal  ranks  it  is  criminal  to  for- 
get the  background  of  Czarist  sup- 
pression, which,  among  its  other  con- 
sequences, has  brought  contempora- 
neous Russia  to  economic  debacle. 
Nor  must  we  cease  to  remember  that 
the  restoration  of  old-time  bureau- 
cracy will  mean  the  return  of  that 
hideous  anti-Jewish  "politik"  which 
today  has  fastened  upon  disillusioned 
Hungary  the  "white  terror."  Jewry 
in  Russia  hopes  for  the  rise  of  a  truly 
democratic  and  liberal  government 
which  will  preserve  the  fruits  of  the 
revolution  of  March,  1917,  and  en- 
able resurgent  Russia  to  live  in  unity 
with  all  sister  nations. 

We  must  have  a  genuine  sense  of 
historical  perspective  in  our  judg- 
ment of  Jewish  heterodoxy.  Who 
knows  but  that  within  a  few  decades 
Jewish  liberals  who  are  today  ruth- 
lessly condemned  and  excommuni- 
cated may  be  approved  in  the  same 
degree  that  the  world  praises  the 
anti-Prussian  achievements  of  Heine. 
Boerne,  Hartmann,  Saphir,  Abraham 
Jacobi  and  other  distinguished  Tews 
who  fought  with  pen  and  musket  the 
battles  of  German  constitutionalism? 
After  all,  it  was  a  Jew — Johann  Ja- 


coby — who  in  1848,  as  head  of  a  pop- 
ular delegation,  retorted  to  stubborn 
Friedrich  William  IV:  "It  is  the 
great  misfortune  of  kings  that  they 
will  not  listen  to  the  truth."  An  in- 
tolerant public  may  do  well  to  recall 
that  in  all  movements  of  religious 
progress  Jews  and  the  Jewish  Old 
Testament  have  played  a  significant 
role.  The  author  of  this  paper  has 
under  preparation  a  dissertation  on 
the  theme,  "Jewish  Influence  in 
Christian  Reform  Movements," 
wherein  it  is  demonstrated  that  the 
great  heterodox  parties — Walden- 
sian-Albigensian,  Hussite,  Reforma- 
tion, Zwinglian,  Calvinist,  Unitarian 
and  Puritan — are  profoundly  indebt- 
ed for  their  initial  stimulus  to  the 
Jewish  interpretation  of  the  Bible  and 
the  direct  participation  in  each  move- 
ment of  contemporary  Jewish  "radi- 
cals." America  has  not  been  endan- 
gered by  reason  of  the  fact  that  early 
American  Puritanism  was  built  upon 
an  Hebraic  model,  had  pronounced 
Jewish  aspects  and  adopted  a  "Body 
of  Liberties"  patterned  after  Rev. 
John  Cotton's  Jewish  constitution, 
entitled  "Moses :  His  Judicials." 

It  is  a  .truism  to  .  say  that  the 
founder  of  the  Christian  religion  was 
himself  a  Jewish  "radical"  and  that, 
the  Apostles  and  early  Christians 
were  dubbed  an  "Internationale,"  as 


pernicious  in  the  eyes  of  reactionary 
Greece  and  Rome  as  the  world  be- 
lieves the  radical  movement  of  today 
to  be. 

Yet  is  it  merely  the  Jewish  "radi- 
cal" to  whom  the  anti-Semite  takes 
exception?  Is  not  the  Jewish  "con- 
servative" equally  obnoxious?  The 
real  grievance  of  the  new  anti-Sem- 
itism is  that  the  Jew  is  adjusting 
himself  more  and  more  to  the  oppor- 
tunities for  normal  life  afforded  him 
in  the  era  of  "emancipation."  The 
Jew  will  continue  to  suffer  bombard- 
ment because  he  is  a  leader  born ;  he 
will  never  be  wholly  free  from  criti- 
cism because  he  stands  conspicuously 
in  the  limelight  by  reason  of  his 
strong  racial  and  individual  person- 
ality. Whatever  the  Jew  does  he 
does  with  intensity;  therefore  he 
must  be  prepared  to  encounter  in- 
tense opposition. 

The  world  has  nothing  to  fear 
from  Jewish  radicalism  as  such. 
Jewish  activity  in  modern  civilization 
neutralizes  itself.  Each  Jewish  ex- 
tremist at  odds  with  the  present  so- 
cial order  is  balanced  by  a  Jewish 
conservative  who  ardently  champions 
it.  The  Jewish  people  in  its  entirety 
duplicates  the  conflicts  and  clashes 
of  all  non-Jewish  peoples.  No  more 
deadly  foe  of  the  Jewish  "capitalist" 
exists  than  the  Jewish  Socialist. 


Thus,  in  so  far  as  influence  is  exert- 
ed by  Jews  as  Jews,  the  extremes, 
both  of  radicalism  and  reaction,  nul- 
lify each  other.  Hence  the  world  can 
safely  banish  from  its  fevered  imagi- 
nation the  specter  of  Jewry  moving 
forward  to  an  assault  upon  modern 
life  as  one  united  phalanx.  Jewry  is 
a  battleground  within  itself,  the  war- 
riors in  civil  combat,  slaying  each  his 
brother. 

Anti-Semitism  must  abate  in  dem- 
ocratic Western  lands,  not  so  much 
for  the  sake  of  the  Jew  as  for  the 
sake  of  the  countries  wherein  he  is 
its  victim.  For  anti-Semitism,  mili- 
tarism and  reaction  are  an  abiding 
and  indivisible  trinity.  Liberalism 
and  justice  for  the  Jew  are  per  con- 
tra indissolubly  wedded.  The  people 
of  the  United  States,  home  of  the 
Puritans  and  Roger  Williams,  and 
the  people  of  England,  birthplace  of 
Cromwell  and  Macaulay,  must  be- 
ware lest  their  republicanism  become 
infected  with  the  malignant  virus  of 
anti-Jewish  hatred.  No  surer  sign 
of  disease  in  the  body  politic,  of 
something  "rotten  in  the  state  of 
Denmark"  obtains  than  the  appear- 
ance of  propaganda  against  the  Jew. 
If  the  American  Jew  is  forced  to  the 
conclusion  that  it  is  not  his  radical- 
ism, his  liberalism  or  his  conserva- 
tism at  which  the  world  takes  um- 


brage,  but  himself,  his  presence,  his 
activity  as  a  Jew,  then  no  further 
proof  is  needed  that  America  has  de- 
scended into  the  valley  of  the  shadow 
of  reaction.  If,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  anti-Jewish  fury  vanishes  we 
may  rest  content  that  American  lib- 
erty has  regained  its  pristine  purity. 
Hence  the  American  Jew  must 
fearlessly  throw  his  influence  into 
the  balance  on  behalf  of  a  resumption 
of  our  war-curtailed  liberties.  In  the 
contest  between  safety  and  con- 
science he  must  boldly  speak  the 
truth,  though  martyrdom  be  his  por- 
tion. We  must  be  faithful  to  our- 
selves though  the  world  strive  to 
drown  us  in  blood.  Thus  only  can 
Jewry  continue  as  a  consiructive  and 
creative  force  in  human  progress. 
The  world  must  trust  the  genius  of 
Israel  to  function,  not  as  a  destroy- 
ing agency,  but  affirmatively  and  pos- 
itively. We  offer  anew  our  services 
to  a  troubled  world  that,  together 
with  all  lovers  of  liberty,  we  may  in- 
scribe the  spiritual  charter  of  an  im- 
proved human  order.  "See,"  says 
the  Prophet,  "I  have  this  day  sent 
thee  among  the  nations  ar.d  the  king- 
doms ...  to  build  and  to  plant." 


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